The Surface Pro is billed as a “no compromise” tablet, offering the best of the mobile experience and a full operating system. The tablet PC sits between tablets and ultrabooks, and it may be unclear at times what the Surface Pro is capable of as a result. You probably won’t be buying a Surface Pro to sit around and play demanding PC games, but if you find yourself with an itch to play Diablo 3, you’ll find it handles the game just fine.

The Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics used in the Surface Pro is hardly what most would consider to be gaming hardware. It’s really designed to handle HD video and multi-monitor support for mid-range laptops, which is what made it useful for the Surface Pro. It’s important to be able to drive the 1080p display on the Surface as well as a connected monitor that is at least the same resolution. Combined with the DisplayPort, the Surface Pro can drive screens much larger than 1080p, or you can install Steam or login to your Blizzard account and fill your 90GB of free space with video games.

On the Surface Pro Diablo 3 plays well in High settings, provided you drop down the default 150% scaling to 125% and play the game in Full Screen mode. The pen input works for left and right click, which allows you to play the game in a basic way without a keyboard attached. You’d have to be really fast, or crazy, to try and play this game with just the pen for very long. With the Type Cover attached, you can even play with both the keyboard and the pen input, or you can just use a mouse and play Diablo 3 like Blizzard intended. The game plays great until you run into packs of more than 25-30 baddies, when the game will slow down noticeably, but just for a moment.

In the end, Diablo 3on the Surface Pro is a great “because you can” sort of thing to have installed. You’re not likely to enjoy playing the game on battery only, and it is one of the few things that will cause the Surface to get warm enough to kick the fans into overdrive. If your goal with the Surface is to replace your laptop, you’ll find that it is capable of playing most games that are out today.